Salk News

La Jolla, CA – Thomas Albright, a Salk Institute professor of neuroscience and director of the vision center laboratory, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. On May 5, the academy named 187 fellows and 29 foreign honorary members to the nation's oldest learned society.

La Jolla, CA – Salk Institute Professor Fred H. Gage has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The election was held April 29 during the business session of the 140th annual meeting of the Academy. Election to membership in the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer.

La Jolla, CA – A cellular receptor that balances the accumulation of fat and fat burning in the body may be a new target for anti-obesity and cholesterol-fighting drugs, according to a Salk Institute study.

La Jolla, CA – A molecule that naturally degrades a protein linked to Alzheimer's disease appears to reduce the levels of that protein by nearly 50 percent when delivered by gene therapy, researchers at the Salk Institute and UC San Diego have found in collaboration with researchers at the University of Kentucky. The findings appear in the March 15 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

La Jolla, CA – Research at the Salk Institute has identified a gene that may link certain pesticides and chemical weaponry to a number of neurological disorders, including the elusive Gulf War syndrome and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

La Jolla, CA – The Salk Institute for Biological Studies has been ranked as one of the nation's leaders in molecular biology and genetics research by a publication that monitors trends and performances in basic research.

La Jolla, CA – A California research team has mapped an entire group of human enzymes, providing important information for the development of a new generation of drugs to treat cancer and other diseases. The findings will be published in the Dec. 6 issue of Science.

La Jolla, CA – Who are we? Are we good or fundamentally evil? What makes us happy? Who can we become? These are the questions prefacing a new book, Liars, Lovers, and Heroes: What the New Brain Science Reveals About How We Become Who We Are.

La Jolla, CA – Sydney Brenner, a distinguished professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, is one of three recipients of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine for his contributions toward discoveries about how genes regulate organ growth and the process of programmed cell death.

La Jolla, CA – HIV selectively inserts itself into active areas of a host cell's genome, Salk Institute researchers have found for the first time. The fact that the virus hooks itself up to areas of the cell's genome that are busy expressing themselves may help explain why HIV can replicate, or reproduce itself, so rapidly. The findings are being published as the cover article in the Friday, August 23, issue of the journal Cell.